The Effects of Spatial and Social Distance on Consumer Evaluation

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

For this piece of work, I acknowledge and want to thank my teaching staff, family and friends for the support and assistance they provided me throughout the completion phase. Their belief and guidance made me able to complete this study by countering various hurdles. This journey has only been possible because of God and his promise to make the impossible possible. There have been many times throughout this journey that I often thought of giving up. My faith in God not only helped me during those doubtful moments but has taught me that through God nothing is beyond reach. God, your will is manifested through me. One of my goals during this doctoral journey is to produce a quality research or product. My dream to contribute to my community and the world through research is within reach through the efforts of several educators, friends, and my family, who are supporting me. I do appreciate each and every person that is involved in this journey of mine.

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DECLARATION

I declare that all the information and data, presented in this research, is my personal research effort and no external assistance has been taken for it. I further declare that this work is not submitted to any academic institution and at any educational or professional level. All the information in this research presents my personal views and observations and they are not associated with the academic institution.

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ABSTRACT

Consumer evaluation is very important for every organisation. It helps the companies in ensuring that they are able to retain the consumers throughout and help them in creating consumer loyalty. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate into the effects of spatial and social distance on consumer evaluation. Construal level theory take into account the way in which psychological distance influences individuals thoughts and behaviour. The two basic psychological dimensions are spatial and social distance and this is the reason that these dimensions have been selected to conduct this research. The research is based on the accumulation of data from primary and secondary sources therefore, mixed research method is selected. In this study, questionnaire has been used as the main source of gathering the primary data. This questionnaire, for data collection, has been designed through reviewing the literature that has been presented. It has been concluded in this research that there is a strong effect of spatial and social distance on the construal level, which indicates that there is a strong impact of these psychological dimensions on the consumers evaluation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION1

Introduction1

Background1

Significance of the Research3

Aims and Objectives3

Research Questions4

Research Hypothesis4

Programme of the Work4

Project Timeline5

Conclusion5

CHAPTER 02: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Introduction6

Construal Level Theory6

Spatial Distance in accordance to Construal Level11

Social Distance in accordance to Construal Level12

Spatial and Social Distance Influence Availability of Information16

Spatial and Social Distance Influence Mental Representation19

Importance of Customer Relationship Management20

Managing Customers through Quality Services21

Function of Customer Service in an Organisation23

Literature Gap23

Conclusion24

CHAPTER 03: METHODOLOGY APPROACH25

Introduction25

Research Design25

Justification for Research Design26

Types of Research Methods26

Research Techniques Used28

Sample Size29

Simple random sampling29

Data Analysis29

Literature Search30

Primary ...